Dem Rep. Connolly: I’m Not Confident We Have a Concrete Counterterrorism Plan for Afghanistan, Intel. Sources ‘Going to Dry Up’

On Monday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) said he isn’t confident the U.S. will be able to keep track of what’s happening in Afghanistan and has a solid counterterrorism plan for the country and predicted that “the country is probably going to be sealed up for a period of time,” and “sources of intelligence are going to dry up.”

Host Ana Cabrera asked, “[A]re you confident the U.S. will be able to keep tabs on what’s happening and has a concrete counterterrorism plan for Afghanistan and the region?”

Connolly answered, “Am I confident? No, I am not. I believe that, with the Taliban takeover complete now, including the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, I think sources of intelligence are going to dry up. I think people are going to put themselves at enormous personal risk to cooperate clandestinely with the United States or its western allies. I think the country is probably going to be sealed up for a period of time, and sadly and predictably, I think the Taliban’s going to revert to the policies that it pursued 20 years ago.”

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